Youth Media Exchange (YME) - Global

YME's focus is on providing free media publishing tools through an online community of young media creators. Specific components include:

• An online "creative commons" consisting of unlimited and universally accessible free storage and bandwith for youth-made media (determined by the partners in this project). This "creative commons" is meant to be a place where anyone can post their media - say, by contributing video - for use by anyone else, with "some rights reserved". (Click here for access). Free web-based editing tools will also be made available.
• A suite of interfaces and social networking tools for using this "commons" effectively, collaborating with other users, and highlighting the work most worthy of attention. These tools include integrated and standardised means to upload video or other media material - and then to rate, sort, and search this material. Although, as of this writing, these tools are in development, the following already-existing interfaces provide examples of the kind of participation and interactivity characteristic of this strategy:
  • Weblogs in various categories are designed to enable any user to share information about his or her work, to exchange ideas related to youth media, to publicise upcoming events, and the like.
  • The open publishing platform, which is an interactive diagram depicting YME's communication strategy that may be edited by members of this online community.
  • The Youth Media Exchange living directory, which is "a shared interactive rolodex" designed to help people search for, and connect with, other members of this community.
• Translation of interfaces to ensure access in as many languages as possible
• Financing the development of television pilots for the best of the youth-made material shared on the web platform, and enabling of regular mainstream exposure of this material through Link TV (one of YME's partners) and other television outlets
• Development of long-term financial value built around the YME community of creators and viewers

As of this writing, YME is in early stages of growth. One example of an idea that is in development, pending the securing of funding, is the creation of low-cost, location-based media stations for public authoring access. One of the partners (Art Center College of Design's Media Design Program) is in the process of establishing such a station in an effort to encourage expression, especially relating to the 2004 USA presidential election.

Youth, Youth Media Development, Independent Media Development, Technology.

Organisers explain that, while Internet access and storage is becoming less expensive and easier to come by in some places around the world, "it is still prohibitively difficult and costly to host video, to the point that very little of the media that could be available online is. This is particularly true in disadvantaged and/or non-English-speaking communities, and the Global South. In addition, what work there is online is not cross-referencable. There is a need and opportunity for a common effort to provide resources and tools that are otherwise out-of-reach for the many organizations that serve young media-makers worldwide."

Organisers claim that YME might be "scaleable to something really signficant, a global media ecosystem bigger than MTV...It is a replicable model that can be applied to numerous other areas that benefit from such an open media architecture (replace "youth" with "environmental" or whatever)." They are financing YME through "a grass-roots call for small donations, through Media Venture Collective...The partner organizations represent networks of literally hundreds of local organizations, so we should collectively be able to motivate a few thousand people to chip in $20 - $100."